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Murder of Liu Mengying

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In this Chinese name, the family name is Liu.

A black and white portrait photo of a young woman facing right
Tao Sijin, c. 1932
A black and white photo of a young woman facing off and to the right
Liu Mengying, 1930

In Hangzhou, China, on February 11, 1932, the 21-year-old art student Tao Sijin killed her romantic partner and fellow student, the 20-year-old Liu Mengying, stabbing her over ten times with a kitchen knife. The two women met in 1928 and became roommates at the Hangzhou National College of Art the following year, soon entering into a romantic and sexual partnership. According to Tao's diaries, the relationship was frequently marked by jealousy by Liu towards other girls, which intensified after Tao became close to a female instructor at the college. While alone at the home of their male mentor Xu Qinwen, the two entered into a confrontation over suspected infidelity, which escalated to the murder. Tao maintained that she had acted in self-defense after Liu had threatened her with the knife.

Tao was brought to trial on both state charges and a private suit filed by Liu's older sister. Press coverage and the Hangzhou court initially viewed the situation as a love triangle dispute over Xu, who had previously proposed marriage to both women. Tao's defense team used her diary as its main evidence, arguing that she could not be found liable due to alleged mental health issues. The abundant media coverage of the trial was sympathetic towards her and generally portrayed Liu in a negative light. Xu was sentenced to a year in prison, while Tao was initially given a life sentence. After a failed appeal by her defense, this was increased to the death penalty, but the life sentence was restored after further appeal to the Supreme Court in Nanjing. Tao remained in prison until 1937, when she was released under amnesty during the Japanese occupation. She allegedly married a male official and lived the rest of her life in obscurity.

Background

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In 1910, Tao Sijin (陶思瑾) was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Her family were writers and artists, most notably among them her older brother Tao Yuanqing [zh] (陶元慶), an influential painter and graphic designer. Liu Mengying (劉夢瑩) was born to a wealthy and politically influential family in Hunan in 1912. Her father, a physician, served as the head of a Kuomintang military hospital in Changsha, and was killed during an attack by Communist forces in 1930.[1][2]

A black and white photo of a group of people around a man's deathbed
The deathbed of Tao Yuanqing, August 1929. Tao Sijin is on the left and Xu Qinwen stands behind her.

The two girls met in 1928 while students at the Lida Academy, a Shanghai alternative school where Tao Yuanqing worked as a teacher. After Yuanqing moved to Huangzhou to work at the Hangzhou National College of Art, Tao Sijin and Liu enrolled at the college and became dorm roommates in the spring of 1929. Tao specialized in western-style painting and art critique, while Liu worked in a number of fields, including printmaking, sculpture, ink wash painting, and oil painting. Both girls were close to Yuangqing and his long-term roommate with whom he shared an affectionate bond, a writer and schoolteacher named Xu Qinwen [zh] (許欽文). Yuanqing died of typhoid in August 1929, and Xu volunteered to anonymously pay for Tao Sijin's tuition.[3] Tao sometimes stayed in a house Xu constructed in Hangzhou to showcase Yuanqing's artwork.[4]

The two girls became very close and affectionate with one another; a later court judgment noted that they began taking naps together under a quilt, leading them to a "sort of long-term association".[5] They engaged in sexual activity[6] and swore that they would refuse any marriage proposals they received so as to remain together for life.[5] Classmates and teachers at the college knew that they were in a same-sex relationship, as did their mentor Xu, who described their love as more intense than a typical husband and wife. Despite this, Xu proposed to Tao at some point after her brother's death. Rejected, he proposed instead to Liu, who also rejected him.[5] Tao grew to deeply dislike Xu, calling him the "devil who entangles me" in her diary.[7] However, due to his financial support, she found herself unable to cut ties with him.[7]

Tao wrote in her diaries that she felt intense love for Liu, writing that she was "mad with passion" over her and describing their same-sex love as "sacred".[7] She reported that Liu was paranoid of infidelity and deeply jealous of friends that she would spend time with, and that this led classmates to avoid becoming friendly with her.[5]

Murder

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While attending Hangzhou National College, Tao had become close with a painting teacher named Liu Wenru (劉文如). The two planned to travel to Sichuan together. Liu complained that Tao had begun to act cold towards her and accused her of having romantic feelings for Liu Wenru. In 1931, Liu allegedly destroyed a gramophone and vase in Tao's room and stated that she wished to kill Liu Wenru. Following the January 28 incident, a 1932 battle in Shanghai between Chinese and Japanese forces, the Hangzhou National College and its dormitories were closed. Due to this, Tao and Liu Mengying stayed together at Xu's residence in Hangzhou.[1][5]

On February 11, 1932, Tao arrived at Xu's residence, and she sent her maid out to buy cold cream. Liu urged Tao to stay in Hangzhou for another day or two, as Tao had expressed plans to travel to Shaoxing soon to visit her sick mother. Liu accused her again of being romantically involved with Liu Wenru, while Tao maintained that their relationship was platonic. During the confrontation, Tao stabbed Liu to death with a kitchen knife. When the maid returned, she found Liu dead on the ground, naked and with at least ten stab wounds. Tao, found wounded and semiconscious besides her, was arrested at the scene.[1][5] Liu was twenty at the time of the attack, while Tao was twenty-one.[8]

Tao accused Liu of having been the one to instigate the violence. In a diary entry from prison dated to the day of the incident, she wrote that she had called Liu a demon and enraged her, leading to Liu attempting to attack her with a knife. She then grabbed the knife and killed Liu, allegedly then kneeling and kissing her corpse.[9]

Trial

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Tao Sijin under escort in 1932

While police investigations over the murder proceeded, Liu's older sister Liu Qingxing (劉慶荇) filed suit against Tao for the murder, naming Xu as an accessory to murder.[10] The state also brought charges, with a trial begun at the Hangzhou County District Court on March 25.[11] The first public hearing on April 1 had an estimated two thousand attendees, who occupied much of the courtroom and broke the window of the front entrance, forcing the judge to delay the hearing.[12]

Liu Qingxing accused Xu of having maintained a love triangle between Liu and Tao, which eventually resulted in the killing. This was the main theory favored by the court, as well as by media coverage of the case. Xu was repeatedly indicted in both civil and criminal courts, accused of ten crimes, including "intended adultery", "enticing underage women", "being over thirty years of age but unmarried", and "housing young women in his bachelor's abode".[10][13]

Tao's attorneys, Li Baosen (李寶森) and Wang Shaogong (汪紹功),[14][15] argued that she suffered from "advanced neurasthenia", an outdated psychiatric term describing a weakening of the nerves caused by the stresses of modern life, resulting in fatigue, physical weakness, anxiety, sexual dysfunction, and a depressed mood. Her gender, intellectual pursuits, and lack of physically vigorous activity were seen as increasing her risk of the condition, attested by frequent colds mentioned in her past letters. They also maintained that she had psychasthenia, an obsolete term for a condition which results in obsessions and irrational compulsions. As such, they claimed that she could not be found liable for the crime due to her mental state, and advocated for her immediate medical treatment for her psychasthenia and to properly diagnose any physical and mental conditions.[14][16]

China's criminal code outlined several forms of mental ailment that could result in reduced punishment: perpetrators could be found "insane" (resulting in no criminal liability), "feeble-minded" (精神衰弱; jīngshén shuāiruò, resulting in a reduced sentence), or having an affected state of mind (resulting in an optional sentence reduction at the judge's discretion).[16][17] The prosecution filed a motion to dismiss the evaluation; they argued that her ability to be admitted to Hangzhou National College pointed to some soundness of mental health. They noted that her family had not previously mentioned poor mental health when she lived by herself, and accused the defense of raising the insanity defense solely as a means to reduce her sentence.[18] Liu Qingxing argued neither neurasthenia or psychasthenia could compel someone to murder, saying that a lesser sentence for the conditions would mean that "everyone is free to murder others and receive a lesser sentence".[19] She also suggested that Tao's neurasthenia could have developed following the murder. The court dismissed the psychological defense presented by Li and Wang, and Tao was never given a mental examination.[14][19]

The defense used Tao's diary as its main piece of evidence throughout the case. They presented selections from the diary in court in an attempt to demonstrate that Liu had an "insidious" nature and used excessive coercion against Tao. They argued that since Tao truly loved Liu, any act of violence against her would be impossible without an impaired mental state. Liu's diary was also used as evidence, although it was cited less often both in the trial and in press coverage of the case. Both diaries were confiscated by the court as evidence, although sections were made public through court verdicts.[15]

The Hangzhou District Court found Tao guilty in May 1932 and sentenced her to life imprisonment. Insufficient evidence was found to convict Xu on the state charges, although he was found guilty of seduction by the same court in the suit filed by Liu Qingxing, and was sentenced to a year in prison.[10] Li and Wang appealed to the Zhejiang provincial high court in July, arguing that it misrepresented Tao's behavior as "ruthless". The Zhejiang provincial court upheld the original conviction and imposed steeper punishments, sentencing Tao to death and Xu to two years in prison.[10][20] The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the Republic of China in Nanjing, which restored the original sentence imposed by the Hangzhou court.[10][21]

Press coverage

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Press coverage of the murder initially focused on Xu's involvement, with some narratives portraying him as the main instigator, having conspired with Tao to dispose of her main rival for his love. This allowed for some press coverage to depict the murder as part of a conventional heterosexual love affair. One reader, writing to the popular woman's magazine Linglong, argued against a homosexual depiction of Liu and Tao's relationship, writing that "if same sex love were the cause, [Tao] would not have needed to act in this way".[22] Media coverage of the trial was often sympathetic to Tao, and generally viewed Liu negatively. Tao and her defense were able to influence public perception through selectively releasing certain portions of the diaries.[23]

Public attendance was banned at some court hearings, as the trial was declared to involve "indecency issues".[24] One court verdict noted that obscene portions of the diary were omitted from the record, leading to widespread public and media speculation that the diary contained sexually explicit material about the women's relationship. This attracted a great deal of attention towards the excerpts from the diary that were made public, which were then published in newspapers such as the Shibao [zh] and the Shishi xinbao [zh]. One Shibao headline declared that "fragments of the diary reveal Tao Sijin's entire soul" (片斷的日記可以看出陶思瑾整個心靈), while the Shishi xinbao described the diaries as testifying to Tao's intense love for Liu.[24] Diary fragments from both women circulated widely among the general public.[24] In July, Tao published her prison diary in the newspaper Dawan bao [zh], which was serialized over six days under the name "Tao Sijin's Prison Diary: The Blood of Love" (陶思瑾獄中日記：愛的血). The Dawan bao also ran a column titled "Tao's Case Forum" (陶案討論會), which published submitted opinions by readers about the case.[9]

The story was extensively covered by the magazine Linglong. Printed alongside photos of Tao and Liu, the magazine explained the murder by citing the British eugenicist Havelock Ellis's writings. Linglong claimed that "because [women in lesbian relationships] assume the male role, [disappointment] often leads to violent behavior, therefore disappointment in love often leads to fierce and brutal actions".[25]

The sociologist and eugenicist Pan Guangdan analyzed the case in two essays in the journal Huanian (華年), describing Tao as a "mental invert" suffering paranoid delusions caused by jealousy and inflamed passions. Pan used the case to advocate for professional psychiatrists to make evaluations of defendants in court and for better methods to prevent recidivism in such cases, writing that as it stood, "who can guarantee that she will not be embroiled in homosexual love once more and will not be driven by jealousy to kill once more?"[26][27] Tao's defense submitted Pan's essays to the court as evidence. The Suzhou physician and sexologist Gu Yin, a health writer, described Tao's actions as an endocrinological issue, pointing to increased psychological stress that women experience during their menstrual cycle. He theorized that women who experience "unusual sexual excitation during menstrual periods, including homosexual arousal" were more likely to "commit a murderous crime when rejected by a girlfriend".[27]

Aftermath

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In late 1933, Tao adopted Buddhist religious practices, abstaining from the consumption of meat and chanting sutras every morning and evening as penance. Studying under a Buddhist master, she made calligraphy of sutras and burned these as offerings. In early 1936, she took initiation vows to become a nun, which was favorably reported by Buddhist religious press. The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 led to the Japanese occupation of much of China. Hangzhou fell to Japanese forces on December 24, and Tao was freed as part of a general amnesty and began work as a teacher.[28][29] In June 1939, she was reported to have married a male county official from Zhejiang. No further information was reported about her life.[28][29]

Xu wrote about the case in a set of his memoirs, published in 1937, giving anecdotes about the lengthy trial and offering his own psychological theories of what led to the murder. These memoirs largely reflect popular psychological thinking at the time, describing homosexuality as a mental condition caused by unfulfilled heterosexual desire.[26]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Tam 2025, p. 69.
  2. ^ Carroll 2018, p. 100.
  3. ^ Carroll 2018, pp. 99, 101–102.
  4. ^ Tam 2025, pp. 81–82.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Carroll 2018, pp. 101–102.
  6. ^ Tam 2025, p. 70.
  7. ^ a b c Tam 2025, pp. 82–83.
  8. ^ Carroll 2018, p. 99.
  9. ^ a b Tam 2025, pp. 86–87.
  10. ^ a b c d e Carroll 2018, p. 103.
  11. ^ Tam 2025, p. 74.
  12. ^ Chiang 2021, p. 44.
  13. ^ Lee 2006, p. 152.
  14. ^ a b c Chiang 2021, p. 52.
  15. ^ a b Tam 2025, pp. 79–80.
  16. ^ a b Carroll 2018, pp. 110–111.
  17. ^ Chiang 2021, pp. 53–54.
  18. ^ Chiang 2021, p. 54.
  19. ^ a b Carroll 2018, p. 111.
  20. ^ Chiang 2021, p. 55.
  21. ^ Nie 2017, p. 390.
  22. ^ Carroll 2018, pp. 103–104.
  23. ^ Tam 2025, p. 76.
  24. ^ a b c Tam 2025, pp. 80–81.
  25. ^ Wang 2011, pp. 278–279.
  26. ^ a b Lee 2006, p. 153.
  27. ^ a b Chiang 2021, pp. 56–57.
  28. ^ a b Tam 2025, p. 90.
  29. ^ a b Carroll 2018, pp. 120–121.

Bibliography

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  • Carroll, Peter J. (2018). "'A Problem of Glands and Secretions: Female Criminality, Murder, and Sexuality in Republican China". In Chiang, Howard (ed.). Sexuality in China: Histories of Power and Pleasure. University of Washington Press. pp. 99–124. ISBN 978-0-295-74346-2. JSTOR j.ctvcwnwj4.10.
  • Chiang, Howard (2021). Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific. Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/chia19096. ISBN 978-0-231-54917-2. JSTOR 10.7312/chia19096.
  • Lee, Haiyan (2006). Revolution of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900–1950. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-6807-8.
  • Nie, Xin (October 2017). "The Origin and Transformation of Judicial Yuan: From the Comparative and Historical Perspective". Frontiers of Law in China. 12 (3): 384–403. doi:10.3868/s050-006-017-0022-3.
  • Tam, Hiu Man (July 2025). "Sentimental Performance and Public Sympathy: Confession and Representations of a Lesbian Crime of Passion in 1930s China". Nan Nü. 27 (1): 68–91. doi:10.1163/15685268-02701067.
  • Wang, Gary (January 2011). "Making 'Opposite-sex Love' in Print: Discourse and Discord in Linglong Women's Pictorial Magazine, 1931–1937". Nan Nü. 13 (2): 244–347. doi:10.1163/156852611X602638.
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